of poverty. many in palestine were not happy with his comments. >> in this region we call this racism. and mr. romney's knowledge about the economy, to reach its potential the economy must be free of that. > >> reporter: the candidates are now focused on on the stretch to the election. in other election news until now, only state residents could collect signatures to get a third party on the ballot in virginia. but now a federal judge says that is unconstitutional. the current law requires those parties to submit 10,000 sixty to get their candidate on the ballot and the judge ruled it violates the political freedom of speech. congress has reached an agreement, harry reid and house speaker boehner agreed to a decision that keeps the

government running for six months. lawmakers on capitol hill voted down an abortion bill yesterday. supporters of the legislation say that would have prevented fetuses from feeling any pain. >> a bill would have changed life in dc. >> reporter: republicans did not get the votes for a bill targeting abortions in washington, d.c. the legislation would have made all abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy illegal in the nation's capital. arizona republican congressman trent frank sponsored the bill with support from antiabortion rights groups. >> unborn children have the capacity to experience pain by 20 weeks and likely substantially earlier. >> reporter: prorights groups say there is no medical evidence to support that claim. >> it is based on radical

ideology, rather than sound science. >> reporter: the vote is putting lawmakers on the record on abortion just before an election. groups are keeping score. >> it is important for the congress to vote on this bill and to get a strong majority in support of reversing the current policy in our nation's capital. >> reporter: the constitution gives congress the authority to govern what happens in the capital city. but the vote had national implications. >> they are aiming for you. it is a national campaign. >> reporter: in a 2000 study the cdc reported no abortions were performed in washington, d.c. after 20 weeks, despite it being legal. cbs news, washington. that bill needed a two-thirds majority in order to pass the house. president obama has

declared washington, d.c. a disaster area. the declaration comes a month after the storm which left 7 million people in the washington area without power. this means the district is now eligible for federal aid to help pay for the clean up costs related to the storm. tuesday was the deadline for utility companies to file reports about how they responded to last month's storm. pepco filed a 6 page report defending its response. the reports from the maryland public service commission said it has had little reports from the storm. it responded within a week. the utility commission says it is in denial. >> weapon co-'s management seems to be deeply in denial. >> they will have the final say on how pepco performed and will

hold hearings with all the public utilities in september. police in herndon, virginia are investigating a fatal hit and run. just after midnight officers found the body of a woman lying in the 600 block of center street. a short distance away officers found an abandoned black toyota which may have been involved in the hit and run. police are searching for the driver of that vehicle. a tougher drunk driving law goes into effect here in the district. these are some of the biggest changes. first time offenders could now be jailed for 180 days and fined up to $1000. first time offenders with a blood alcohol content of .20 or higher will have a mandatory jail sentence. investigators are trying to figure out what led acal vert

county, maryland man to kill most of his family before killing himself. 32-year-old frank heyward killed and burned his 31-year-old wife, cynthia, and their two-year-old daughter natalie before he killed himself. his 12-year-old son frank heyward iii suffered a slashed throat and burns, but he survived. neighbors are stunned. >> to do that and take a two-year-old life and try to kill everybody is completely ridiculous. makes no sense. >> police found guns in the home they believe were used in the assault. they are still trying to figure out how everyone died. police in aberdeen, maryland will release surveillance video to find who kidnapped cal rip ken's mom. investigators have released a

sketch of the man violent rip ken -- violet rip ken says kidnapped her last week. more than 600 million people are still without power in india. several electric grids failed for the second day in a row because of high demand there, and crews are making some progress when it comes to restoring electricity. much of new delhi is back on the grid. the goal is to have the rest of the country back online by the end of the day. author gore vid dale has died. he spend part of his childhood here in washington, d.c. a veteran of world war ii, he was seen as a hero among

political progressives and liberals. he was 86 years old. a massachusetts marine biologist says it was likely a great white shark that bit a swimmer off the cape cod coastline monday. the description of the injuries and the large number of gray seals seen in the area near the beach leads him to believe it was a great white attack. great whites feed on seals that is why they were there. if you thought yesterday was warm, tack on a few more degrees this afternoon. howard is back at 4:39 to let you know when he thinks the afternoon storms will roll in too. will they or won't they? investors raising doubt about the fed taking action to help the economy. a report from the ntsb says a lack of regulation was one of the causes of a bus crash in virginia last year. >> we are back in a few minutes with a look at your weather

first. you are watching 9news now.

it is 4:40 on this wednesday morning. storms once again southern maryland, lower eastern shore. a lot of lightning down there we are seeing a couple of raindrops on the south side of the metro. upper 80s for highs. watch out though, for a few more thunderstorms as those could be locally heavy. i'll be back with the 7-day forecast in five minutes. right now over to monika. >> reporter: here a a live look at the 14th street bridge. traffic is running well. across the river here into down or down in this area. good morning jessica doyle, how are you? >> i'm doing well.

i like your pretty new tie, mike haiduk. >> i'm like are you going to wear that tie again? >> now i can say i'm not wearing the same ties all the time. >> reporter: today is a big day for investors. hope is fading the federal reserve will announce new steps today to jump start the sluggish economy. chairman ben bernancke has said the fed is prepared to act if unemployment remains high but experts say the economy hasn't really slowed enough to take action right now. yesterday a report showed a surprise jump in consumer confidence and a rise in home prices for the second straight month. basically ironically the signs are that the economy is just too strong to justify any new help. on wall street stocks closed out the month of july with losses. the dow slid about 65 points in trading yesterday but rose more than 1 ecommerce for the -- 1% for the month.

the heads of the three parties in greece's new coalition government will meet today to try to agree on more cuts. further cuts are being demanded to save the country. $14 billion over the next two years don't you love how we are in charge of our own destiny by watching greece every single day? >> unbelievable. goodness gracious. thanks jess. 2012 is going to be remembered likely for the summer of powerful storms and a massive drought. >> coming up, we'll highlight steps farmers in the southwest are taking to save their crops. 9news returns in two minutes with your weather alert.

4:44 this morning. coming up on 4:45. a new month is still hot, people are talking about air conditioning in india, happy

now to say they have the power restored to 600 million people. >> that is twice america without power in india in one-third of the space. >> they have a lot of demand and they are struggling to meet that demand. >> the tourists are coming, all of that spiked it, and it took a toll. >> apparently the hp call center had power though, i was talking to them helping me out on a little problem. >> what about us? >> reporter: we have grass pollen still up. and thunderstorms this morning. down south, southern maryland, it has been so dry down there, they are happy for the rain and the northern neck of virginia. this stuff is moving to the east. here's a look at the day planner. humid air mass in place, more showers and storms into the afternoon. some of these will be locally heavy. 83, 84 at lunch time with a

5:00 p.m. temperature of 86. upper 80s should pop in there early this afternoon. then we'll be bouncing around with thunderstorms. light showers going on here in the metro. very light sprinkles here but south of town is where we are seeing the rain lingering in southern maryland ais i don't the bay on the lower eastern shore, all of its lightning, it is generally offshore now with these rains continuing. leonard town toward calvert county and down into st. mary's city and ridge. it is the eastern shore, look at it not quite to cambridge, it is going to stay heavy stuff south of you. plenty of lightning in this. the rest of us just another mild, muggy morning. temperatures in the upper 60s.

upper marlboro 69, hey market 67. outside on the michael and son weather camera, looking good out there, mostly cloudy skies at national. 74 with the humidity 82%. it is a tad less human than yesterday but is still kind of muggy out there. temperatures way up there. tulsa, oklahoma yesterday got to 112 and 108 in oklahoma city. they could be even hotter today. dallas 109. we are going to see a little bit of this heat as we get toward the end of the week and the weekend. you could really see this, follow this. high pressure here, see this ridge there and then you have a dip across the ohio valley and the northeast. when we have a dip in the jet, that allows the showers and storms to persist. underneither the ridge that is high and dry in the midwest

this morning coming through areas in the northeast. we have the instability in place like yesterday, so throw in the daytime heating, we are going to pop showers and storms. i think this is a little underdone by the computers, but you see the scattering of showers and storms across the region. what we are noticing is less activity as we head into thursday, mainly along coastal areas there could be stray storms tomorrow and again on friday. so with fewer storms, more sunshine, temperatures are going this way, up. 88 today, yellow aletter today with scattered storms around. snags only got to 300 yesterday. 93 tomorrow, isolated stray storms tomorrow and friday. 95 on friday. by the way lows tonight once again 60 and 70. longer nights are helping us cool down. friday 95, the weekend high

saturday and sunday, 94. i think saturday will be dry right now with a chance of storms sunday. here comes a front next week on monday. high temperatures should be back into the 80s and we'll take that. 4:48. here comes monika samtani. >> reporter: generally speaking we just have that construction on the west side of town, on the beltway. and we do actually have an accident on the outer loop of the beltway near georgia avenue. that is reported to be on the shoulder. it is light enough right now it shouldn't affect your ride in. if you are traveling that way, give them some space there. they are on the shoulder near georgia avenue. we'll take a live look outside and show what you it looks like. by the way in herndon on center street, just south of route 606, crews are dealing with an overnight deadly accident and it is close in that area, center street south of route 606. let's go back over to our maps and this time on the northbound

side of i-95. looking good woodbridge into norton. if you are planning to head to the 14th street bridge, everything is looking great here. i'll be back in a few minutes at 4:55. but first the national transportation safety board said last year's deadly bus crash in virginia was caused by failures by the driver, bus company and federal regulators. the report says the driver had limited opportunities for sleep and was severely at that tagged when the bus flipped on i-95. the bus company, sky express, didn't have adequate safety policies in place. the fairfax county board of supervisors has approved a plan to build along columbia pike. service would run between pentagon city and bailey's

crossroads. more americans have multiple health problems. new government statistics show 21% of adults 45 to 64 years of age have two or more chronic condition. they raise from diabetes to cancer and piper tension. 45% of -- hypertension. there is another benefit to having cataract surgery. researchers say it can lead to fewer broken bones. a new study finds older americans who have the eye surgery were less likely to fracture their hip after the procedure. cataracts can cause problems with balance and stability. new research shows moderate exercise helps heart failure patients both mentally and physically. researchers at duke university found those who worked out 90 minutes a week were less likely to be depressed. the physical activity was also linked to fewer

hospitalizations and death. mid star health has announced it has taken plans to take control of southern maryland hospital center in clinton. the 35-year-old facility in prince george's county was managed by its founder. it was initially meant to address shortages in care there but the family says it cannot take pace -- keep pace now, so med star plans to put nearly $100 million of improvements in the facility. in the scorching hot texas panhandle the farmer's lifeline is water from the area. >> water levels are dropping and landowners are worried. karen brown has more. >> reporter: even in the middal of a cornfield farmer harold grail is never without his blackberry. >> reporter: how has that changed your life? >> we will be able to consult

everything with our telephones. >> reporter: in the blistering heat of his drought, he and his neighbors in the north plains of texas are going high-tech to conserve water. because the massive underground aquifer that iring gates their field has -- irrigates their field has seen a drop. to save the aquifer leon teaches that underground probes measure soil moisture and send messages to his computer. he only waters where it is needed. >> right now we are watering crops like this corn with half as much water. >> reporter: sprinklers are now closer to the ground. sensors monitor usage and send updates to his smartphone and some of his corn grows from hybrid seeds. the crop is high stakes and not

just for the farmers. the texas high plains supply at least a quarter of the nation's beef. and even through the scorching drought the farmers have helping to keep these cattle well fed. dumas, texas. republican leaders in the house are calling for immediate relief for livestock producers instead of extending the current farm bill like they were originally planning. time for the question of the morning. research suggests that 15% of us never use these after we get them. is it prescriptions, exercise equipment, or barbecue grills? >> log onto the wusa9 facebook fan page and leave your response. we'll reveal the answer during the 6:00 hour. we'll be back.

we are looking at another day where we are going to get a

scattering of showers and storms this afternoon. we'll share the weather graphics in a moment, i suppose. temperatures in the mid-80s by lunch time. some of storms this afternoon again could be locally heavy. >> reporter: on the northbound side of i 395 here at the 14th street bridge, the length of 35 heading into the district. i'll have more on traffic coming up at 5:01. how about shopping? tax free shopping time in virginia, you will save sales tax on clothes and shoes that are $100 or less. school supplies are also included and in maryland you'll get a full week from august 12th through the 18th of the back to school supplies are not included in maryland's tax free week, however. apple's fans are abuzz after the company scheduled a news announcement for september

12th. mark your calendars. speculation is swirling apple will unveil its iphone 5 and the seven inch ipad. the latest version of the iphone is set to be available by september 21. -on oscar winner runs into legal trouble in new orleans. teresa garcia has that story and more. >> reporter: new orleans police issued an arrest warrant for cuba gooding, jr. after he allegedly shoved a bartender. he is shooting a movie. rihanna and drake could be the king of the 2012 video music awards. they lead the pack with five nominations each. mtv will air the show life from the staples center next month.

alicia keys and one direction are among the acts scheduled to perform. kate middleton is on vanity fair's best dressed list and graces the cover of the issue that hits stands next week. james bond played again by daniel craig, stages his death. fans also get their first look at oscar winner bar december playing the evil woman silva. that is your eye on entertainment. teresa garcia. happy month of august, i'm andrea roane. >> it is here and still hot. i'm mike haiduk, hi monika samtani. >> guess we'll take our de